After arriving on Friday the 27th, a bunch of complete strangers, everyone was soon given interesting
tasks to do. Our first watch was’nt until midnight, so we had plenty of time to get into life on the ship, before the serious work began. The first challenge of the voyage was 'hands aloft’ with plenty of eager volunteers to climb the rigging. This dry run was nothing compared to the climb in the force 8 winds that greeted us when we attempted to untie the gatlins thqt held up the sails whilst we were in harbour. We were still at anchor for our first watch from midnight until 4am.Thankfully this meant that not all of the watch had to be on duty so the time could be split and a few more hours of sleep claimed.
After crawling back into bed it was morning all too soon and after breakfast time for bracing training. This meant that we were all trained in what ropes were to be heaved and which ones eased to allow the yard arms to rotate around the mast and enable us to use the wind to the full. By the time that the training had finished the wind was blowing a steady force 7 and after a quick blast of the engines to get us off the anchorage point we were sailing! With 6 sails up we have had a brilliant day flying down the east coast and around the north Norfolk coast. The plan is to sail overnight to Orwell before heading across the channel for a European stop over.
Aft Starboard
James, Big Dan, Dan, Becca, Jumbo and Roger